Electronic Products,Integrated Circuits,CAM, CAE, and EDA,Data, Signals, and Input/Output.

Introduction

Electronic Products

Engineers use Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools to design electronic products. Electronic products include just about anything that plugs into the wall or uses a battery for electric power, such as computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and communications equipment. Electronics are used in houses, automobiles, aerospace products, and all kinds of industrial products.

To understand EDA we have to look more closely at electronic products. Like any technical area, electronics and EDA use lots of jargon. Let us begin with a little vocabulary so everyone can start with the same basic terms.

Printed Circuit (PC) Boards

Look inside a stereo, personal computer, or cellular phone, and you will see thin plastic (often green) printed circuit boards (PC boards).

Did You Know?

Printed Circuit (PC) boards are NOT the same as Personal Computers (PCs), and are NOT Politically Correct (PC). Unfortunately, the same abbreviation is used (PC). However, Personal Computers do contain PC boards.

Thin copper wires connect many little electronic parts mounted on the boards. These parts are small rectangular blocks (often black) with pins that stick out and look like insects with legs. The electronic parts come in different sizes and some are called integrated circuits (ICs). Figure 1.1 shows a drawing of the PC board, wires, and parts. The pins connect the electronic parts to the wires. Also note that the ICs may connect with pins as shown or with flat wires on all four sides, or with tiny solder balls underneath.

01fig01

Note that the PC board wires are printed or deposited, and so are flat, not round. The PC board also has printed copper fingers or connectors at the edge for electrical connections off the board.

Integrated Circuits

Integrated circuits (ICs) use printed wiring very similar to that on the PC boards. The "board," however, is now a thin silicon chip, with much smaller devices and wiring. Both the devices and the wiring are fabricated in the silicon surface.

Did You Know?

The silicon (silly-con) here is a silver, brittle, metallic substance. It is a major element in ordinary sand. Do not confuse it with silicone (silly-cone), which is the rubbery material used in caulking and car waxes.

Semiconductor companies make ICs. These are also called chips, microchips, or silicon chips. Figure 1.2 shows a drawing of an integrated circuit, with its silicon chip, package, and pins.

01fig02

The figure shows the fine gold bonding wires which connect the chip pads to the package pins. The wires are thinner than a human hair. The IC package takes up much more room than the tiny chip. There are many other styles of IC packages besides the example shown. Some chips are encased in smaller chip scale packages. Some ICs (called flip chips) can connect directly to PC boards, without package, wires, or pins. This allows those boards to hold more chips.

The ICs hold millions of tiny electrical switches called transistors. Thread-like printed wires on the IC connect transistors (and other devices) to form electrical circuits. These circuits are the heart of all electronic products. They can make small electrical signals larger (amplify) or make logical decisions (e.g., does number A = number B?). Basic logic circuits are called gates.

CAD, CAM, CAE, and EDA

Arranging the ICs and wire routes on the PC board is called layout. Programmers developed Computer Aided Design (CAD) software tools to help with the tedious PC board layout. Engineers later adapted PC board CAD tools for similar use on ICs.

Programmers continued to develop many other software tools to help design the IC and verify its behavior. Some are called Computer Aided Engineering (CAE). Others are called Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM). Electronic Design Automation (EDA) is an umbrella term for all these tools.

Data, Signals, and Input/Output

The information that is transferred between electronic products and ICs is called data. Data consists of numbers, letters, voice, video, etc. When electricity is sent from one IC to another, it is called a signal. Signals going into a product or IC are inputs, and those coming out are called outputs. Input and output together are referred to as input/output or I/O.

(You can read more about silicon, semiconductors, and computers in Appendices A, B, and C.)

Electronic Product Development

Neither the electronic products nor the ICs could be made without the use of EDA tools. EDA is intimately bound to the semiconductor IC and electronic product design industries.

Engineers use EDA tools to design electronic systems and ICs. To learn about EDA, we have to understand what the engineers are trying to do. Figure 1.3 gives an overall view from electronic product to IC.

01fig03

In Figure 1.3, we see the system engineers discussing the idea for a new cellular telephone product. They create a set of IC requirements for the electronics which they need in the product. The requirements are similar to an architect's drawings.

Then IC logic designers transform those requirements into detailed design plans for the electronics. These are similar to the detailed blueprints for a house.

Next, IC layout designers take the design plans and lay out the physical view of the IC chip. For a house, this is like ordering real lumber, pipes, and appliances, with plans for the contractors.

The layout designers generate a computer data file for manufacturing. An IC fabrication plant uses this data file to make the chip. The product manufacturer assembles the resultant IC into the final cell phone product for use by a customer.

Let us now describe the companies, people, jobs, and tasks involved.

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